Netanyahu: Israel-U.S. In Sync on Iran Threat

Posted by Tip Staff5sc on September 30, 2012

Jerusalem, Sep. 30 – Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his trip to the U.N. in New York last week got the message of the Iranian threat out to the world and strengthened understanding with America.

Netanyahu said he had a good conversation with U.S. President Barack Obama on how to confront the danger of Iran’s nuclear weapons program, the Times of Israel reported. “I believe that Israel and the United States can reach agreements that are far more consistent than what this or that analyst would suggest,” he said.

Following his U.N. speech, Netanyahu said “hundreds of millions of people got my message” around the world. The Israeli leader had made clear that “Iran has to be stopped at the enrichment stage,” he told Israel’s Channel 10 News.

“We are a small state threatened by a regime that aims to destroy us,” Netanyahu said, adding that his goal was to focus international attention and global pressure on the Iranian threat.

In a chilling interview earlier this year, the head of the Iranian armed forces, Major General Hassan Firouzabadi, said "the Iranian nation is standing for its cause that is the full annihilation of Israel."

Iran is under harsh U.N. sanctions over its refusal to cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency. Tehran claims its nuclear development program is for peaceful purposes, but the IAEA believes Iran carried out development work that could only be for nuclear weapons.

The UK, France and Germany urged their European Union partners "to further step up the pressure" on Iran by agreeing new sanctions to undermine its nuclear drive, the AFP news agency reported.

The sanctions -- set to be formally adopted on October 15 -- call for punitive action in the energy, finance, trade and transportation sectors.